Gen 43:15-34; 44:1-13 I once heard a pastor discuss the prevalence of sexual abuse cases in the Church. He suggested that Christians are often soft targets for such offenders. In other words, it is not that religious people are somehow…

Gen 43:1-14 Back in my single days, I rather liked a guy. We were in the same church and good friends, but the friendship never developed into anything more. As our circumstances changed and our lives went their different ways,…

Gen 42:18-38 Every once in a while, we encounter someone who has undergone a dramatic change in a short period of time, but for most of us, transformation is a slow and often painful process. I suspect that even for…

Gen 42:1-25 It is often argued that forgiveness is important because harbouring bitterness against those who wronged us causes harm to ourselves, so that it is in our best interest to forgive others irrespective of whether they repent of their…

Gen 41:37-57 The story of pastors leading megachurches or tele-evangelists who acquire world-wide fame and enormous success and then fall into sin has become almost a cliché these days. Handling the adulation of the masses, living with others’ worshipful deferment…

Gen 41:1-36 A young pastor who was just starting his ministry was particularly busy one week and neglected sermon preparation. He consoled himself with the truth that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, who ‘will teach you in that very hour…

Gen 40:1-23 People who experience a short-term difficulty whether a recovery from an accident or a brief period of financial difficulty often rise to the challenge because there is an end in sight. Keeping up morale when an illness is…

Gen 39:1-23 During the Communist era in Hungary, my Dad’s family was considered ‘politically unreliable’. Dad was denied a university education (though he did get one later) and worked in an optical glass factory as a manual labourer. Early on,…

Gen 38:1-30 A mistake often made by preachers and readers of Scripture is to apply its message by moralising and to do so using the particular ethical emphases of their (modern) context. Thus, it is not uncommon for readers to…

Gen 38:1-30 The incident of Judah and Tamar has puzzled both commentators and readers for a long time. Why is this story plopped into the Joseph narrative, when readers are raring to hear more about him? I will address the…